The United States is "engaged in hybrid warfare with Russia right now, and we don't even recognize it," retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark told Newsmax TV on Friday.

"I'm more worried about Russia and what Russia has tried to do with hybrid warfare," Clark, 73, who retired in 2000 after 34 years, told Miranda Khan on "America Talks Live" in an exclusive interview.

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"The Russian intelligence agencies are doing their best to undercut American and European democratic institutions, whether it's botnets that are out there that these people are corresponding with, amplifying destructive messages.

"For Russia's purposes, they don't care if it's left or right, as long as they can mess things up in democracy.

"We know what they're long-term objectives are," Clark said.

Russia actively meddled in the 2016 presidential election, from hacking the Democratic National Committee to directing ads toward specific battleground states on Facebookto targeting voting systems in 21 states and "successfully" penetrating several of them, a top Homeland Security official said Thursday.

Former President George W. Bush said Thursday that there was "pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled" in the election, echoing similar conclusions from the nation's intelligence community.

Clark, a West Point valedictorian who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Democrat Bill Clinton, told Khan that the United States must beat back the Kremlin "with not just military means, but with smart leadership against these objectives.

"We have to protect our voting systems in this country. We don't want Russian interference in the election.

"We have to protect instant messaging and social media from Russian botnets," he said.